The ONS said: ‘House prices are increasingly strong across most parts of the UK, with prices in London again showing the highest growth.’

The ONS figures lag a month behind other indexes but take in actual sale prices for all properties, not just those bought with a mortgage.

The index comes after a report from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors last week indicated that the capital’s soaraway property market was running out of steam.

Its member estate agents predict prices to fall in London while they rise elsewhere in the near future.

Rory Penn, partner of prime London property agency VanHan, says: ‘While the heat may have come out of the super-prime London housing market, the mainstream London market is full of buyers with salaries, deposits and mortgages - buyers who are still desperate to get into the market. The economy is on the up and so therefore is consumer confidence.’

Regional growth: London sticks out like a sore thumb, with growth of 20.1% in the last 12 months

The ONS figures show prices were up 9.6 per cent in the South East and 8.6 per cent in the East in the last 12 months.

Excluding London and the South East, annual price increases averaged 6.4 per cent, the highest rate since June 2010.

On a month-by-month basis, values jumped by 0.8 per cent across the country, compared with a rise of 0.3 per cent a month earlier.

The figures also show that first-time buyers face having to pay 11.3 per cent more to get on the property ladder than they did a year ago, with the typical starter home now costing £202,000.

Campbell Robb, chief executive of Shelter, said: ‘Once again these figures show that house prices are spinning out of control, putting a stable home even further out of reach for ordinary families.

‘Instead scores of people are either stuck in their childhood bedrooms or forced to bring up children in unstable and expensive rented homes, however hard they work or save.’

Every region in England saw an annual price uplift, with the lowest rate of 3.9 per cent in the North West.

Prices overall in England rose by 11 per cent over the year, with a 6.5 per cent increase in Wales and 3.6 per cent in Scotland while prices in Northern Ireland fell by 0.7 per cent.

Differences: House prices in England are increasing fast - but this is largely skewed by London data

It comes as the number of properties for sale in Britain remains in a slump, with half the number on sale in 2008 according to official statistics. What is more, the number of properties for sale has been declining for months.

In May the average estate agent was advertising 44 properties. In December 2008 the figure was 100, according to data from the National Association of Estate Agents.

A number of indexes recorded mammoth house price growth in the last year. According to the Halifax index, a year ago, house prices were increasing annually at less than half the pace they are now, by 3.7 per cent.

The average house price reached £183,462 in June compared to £167,668 seen at the same point last year, the index also found last week.

The ONS figures come weeks after the Bank of England moved to put curbs on riskier mortgage lending with a new cap on home loans and stronger checks to make sure borrowers can afford repayments.

Howard Archer, chief economist at IHS Global Insight, said: ‘At the moment, house prices still look more likely than not to see clear increases over the coming months, although it is looking increasingly probable that there will be some easing back in house price gains from the recent strong increases.’